Nell Iris's Blog, page 21

Playing Chicken: A St Dwynwen’s Day story

Today, my friend A.L. Lester is here to remind us that is’s soon St Dwynwen’s Day, and about her book, Playing Chicken, that’s inspired by this day. I’ve read it, it’s fabulous (short review here), so if you want something short and down-to-earth, with chickens and tea, and a quiet romance, I warmly recommend this book.

Thank you so much for having me here today to visit, Nell! Happy New Year to you and all your readers.

I am popping in to remind everyone I have a short gay romance in...

New Release Spotlight; One Would Be Enough by Holly Day

Hello everyone! Thank you, Nell, for letting me drop by again. (You’re always welcome, my friend. I’m reserving a spot for you every month this year. No pressure! )

I hope you’ve had a good start to the year. At the time of writing, we’re awaiting Covid test results for hubby, so not the greatest of starts to the year. By the time this post goes live, we’ll probably know, but there are delays in getting the results since so many are getting tested right now.

But I didn’t come here to tal...

New Release Spotlight: The Thrill of the Chase by Ellie Thomas

Thank you Nell for having me as your guest today! I’m Ellie Thomas, and I write Historical Gay Romance. In this blog, I’m chatting about The Thrill of the Chase, my January release for JMS Books.

Perhaps because I write of times gone by, I tend to base my stories in familiar places. This helps me get my facts (and street names) correct! As I went to school in the beautiful Regency town of Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire’s famous Cotswolds, it seemed an ideal story setting. I was only waiting f...

Goodbye December

I’m late, I know. This post usually goes up on the first in the new month, but I haven’t had the energy to write it earlier. December has been…ugh. You remember how I complained in my previous “Goodbye…” post that November is my least favorite month and how I wasn’t sad to see it go? If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have complained so much. November was great compared to December, because I’ve been sick most of the month. I’ve been coughing and coughing and coughing, and it’s been...

Favorite Books of 2021

According to my Goodreads statistics, I read and listened to 140 books in 2021. That’s not the whole truth, because as usual I’ve read tons of fanfic – almost everything I read in December when I was sick was fanfic – so a conservative estimate is probably double that number, but likely even more.

I’ve read a few really bad books, lots of average ones, and a few fantastic ones. And it’s the fantastic ones I want to talk about today. Below is ten of my favorite reads this year. It’s not all ...

Happy New Year

It’s finally here, the last day of 2021. I can’t say I’m gonna miss it but who knows if next year will be any better? I’m not even gonna be cautiously optimistic; I’m just gonna go with the flow. But my year will at least end on a high note: our Malaysia BFFs are visiting today and we’re going to eat and drink and catch up on the last two years. I really look forward to it.

But if they weren’t visiting, I’d be equally happy to spend the day on the couch with a good book, an even better playl...

2021 Top Ten Gay Romance

Every year, JMS Books releases an anthology with the best-selling short stories of the year, and I’m extremely happy and honored to tell you that for the fifth year in a row, one of my stories will be included! Can you believe it? Five years in a row!! What have I done to deserve this?

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This year, it’s my tiny tattoo story, Wake Him with a Kiss that you loved so much it’ll be included in the anthology. This makes supremely happy, because it’s not even 7000 words long, and most reade...

Recent Release: The Santa Emergency

On Christmas Day, my holiday story The Santa Emergency was released. I know, I know, I’m supposed to promote my books on the actual release day, but because I’ve been sick I haven’t had time to schedule anything, and Christmas is a very busy time. Hence, no release day post.

Am I still allowed to call myself an author if I miss such a vital part of my job? (please say yes!)

But better late than never etc, so I’m telling you about it today. And I have a really cool link for you. Every...

New Release Spotlight: The Ruby Tooth by Ofelia Gränd

Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you, Nell, for letting me drop by again (you’re always welcome, my friend!). It’s been an intense year, and I figured we’d close it out with a Nice story

JMS Books had an in-house call for short stories that were either Naughty or Nice. I went with Nice. I’m almost a little shocked about that – not really, but I had this inner monologue where I told myself I ought to pick the Naughty one.

Thing is, I could’ve picked either or and still argued that it fit m...

New Release Spotlight: A Midwinter Night’s Magic by Ellie Thomas

Help me welcome the lovely Ellie Thomas to my blog today, who’s here to talk about her upcoming release A Midwinter Night’s Magic. I love Ellie Thomas’s books and I love Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so this is definitely a book for me! I pre-ordered it a long time ago, and I can’t wait to read it! Release day is December 22.

Thank you so much, lovely Nell, for having me as your guest today! I’m Ellie Thomas, and I write Historical Gay Romance. In this blog, I’ll be chatting ab...